


Extras

by Metaphorical_Tables



Series: Snakes and Shinigami [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Books, CANON WHO, Drama, Gen, I do what I want, I've gone thru like three separate versions of this fic, It wasn't even a reincarnation fic at first that's how much it's changed since development, Plants, Sarcasm, Sass, Science, Social Anxiety, a couple different scenes, dont test me, extras, extras read all about it, ghost summoning, i have too many ideas okay, like forty plot points, luck, or rather, questionable child rearing, science!!!, so many dumb jokes, took out like three whole chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2019-11-08 22:21:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17989574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Metaphorical_Tables/pseuds/Metaphorical_Tables
Summary: A place where I put extra stuff related to the main work of the series;Life is Alright and Then you Die (and That's Where the Fun Begins)Mostly it's previous versions of the fic, or little side stories I ended up not including in the main one. (I edited/straight-out removed alotof plot points.)





	1. Railee ver.1

Railee stared at the entrance to the Ninja Academy apprehensively. 

Don’t get her wrong — she was glad she didn’t have to go to the civilian daycare anymore, since she’d frankly learned everything they had to teach. Evidently she learned faster than her peers — apparently normal children often had to hear something more than once to remember it?

She’d spent most of her spare time at the library, which only accelerated her progress further. Yes, she was glad she wasn’t going to that ‘school’ anymore. While it certainly served its purpose of containing small children, there wasn’t really any sort of curriculum. While they did teach things, it seemed to be on a case-by-case, play-it-by-ear sort of system.

The Academy’s more structured schedule would be far less boring. However, that also meant she wouldn’t be allowed to just read in a corner all the time anymore. Which meant she’d have to  _ talk _ . To  _ people _ . 

Railee took a breath. Shoving her hands into the pockets of her oversized hoodie, she headed in.

When she walked into her classroom, her first impression was that  _ someone _ in the class was  _ loud. _ Upon closer inspection, two someones. One was a kid with a dog on his head (Inuzuka, probably) and the other was probably the brightest person she’d ever seen, with bright yellow hair and an even brighter orange jumpsuit. The jumpsuit was even brighter than her own hair, which was a feat, since her hair was a pretty vivid shade of orange.

Other immediately noticeable things included a girl with pink hair and a kid who had a pineapple for a ponytail, who was literally asleep. 

_ Oh boy, _ Railee thought.

She immediately headed for the back row, where not many people had settled. Sitting in the back also had the added advantages of being able to see everyone else in the room, having a wall to her back, and being less likely to be called on by the teacher. 

As the teacher came in, the room quieted down. He introduced himself, then had everyone else do the same. When it was Railee’s turn, she stood up from her seat.

“Ah, hello. Um. My name’s Railee.” She bowed. “Nice to meet you.”

After introductions were over, they got onto class. Since it was the first day, everything was pretty simple. At the end of the day, she only remembered two names.

Uzumaki Naruto, because he was bright, loud, and yelled about being Hokage, and Nara Shikamaru, because he was still asleep when introductions were happening and the girl next to him smacked him awake.

_ Ah, well, _ she thought,  _ Two names on the first day is my new record, anyway. _

Then, as she did every day, she headed towards the library. She checked out two books; a mystery novel and a book on basic genjutsu. 

She found the concept of genjutsu fascinating — figuring people out had always been a hobby of hers, and genjutsu was best utilized if you knew things about your opponent. Plus, unlike ninjutsu, it was only limited by your imagination, or, in some cases, your opponent’s.

While reading her book, she wandered around, letting her legs take her wherever her subconscious wanted. She’d done this before, and she always ended up in interesting places.

Her wandering was brought to a halt when her book smacked into a tree. She jolted out of her reading trance and looked around. She was on the edge of a clearing with what looked like some sort of monument in the middle.

_ Ah, this must be the memorial stone, _ she thought. She’d read references to it in some of her books, but she’d never actually been to see it before.  _ Well, this should be a quiet place to read. _

She turned back to the tree she’d run into. It was a good tree, nice and twisty, with lots of handholds. Putting her book into her pocket with the mystery novel, she started climbing. Settling into a comfortable nook, she pulled out her book. However, before she could start reading, someone appeared in the clearing.

_ Is that an ANBU uniform? _ She thought, immediately followed by;  _ Wow, that’s some hair. _

Deciding she didn’t really care, she went back to reading. But when she finished her book, he was still there. But still, she didn’t care. She started her mystery novel. It was probably riddled with inaccuracies, both about law enforcement and how ninja stuff worked, but she still liked trying to predict the plot twists.

Two hours later, she’d finished her second book and the guy was  _ still there. _

_ Doesn’t he have shit to do? _ Railee thought.  _ I thought ninja were busy all the time. _

Nonetheless, it wasn’t any of her business, so she put her books in her pocket and left. She stopped by the library to drop the books back off, then headed back to the orphanage. It was about dinnertime, so she had to get back soon or all the good stuff would be gone.

As soon as she walked in the door, however, she was waylaid by the headmistress.

“Railee, there you are. We were looking for you, but — ” she cut herself off, then sighed. “Anyway, we need to talk.”

_ Oh no. _

“Now that you’ve started at the academy, we think it’s time you move into your own place.” The headmistress sighed again. “You’re a very smart girl, and you mostly take care of yourself anyway, and frankly we need more space — You’d get an orphan’s stipend to buy food and things, and to pay rent…”

Railee blinked. That was… a lot less dire than she’d assumed. A bit questionable of a decision, since she was six, but — “Yeah, okay.”

The headmistress relaxed. “ _ I don’t know what I expected _ ,” she muttered, before continuing on in a louder tone, “Glad you agree, since, well, we already packed all your things. After dinner we’ll bring it all to your new apartment.” And then she walked away.

_ … What was she gonna do if I’d said I didn’t want to? _ Riley leveled an unimpressed look at the Headmistress’s retreating back. Then, she went and got dinner. 

__________

Standing outside her new apartment, Railee contemplated how the hell she was supposed to get all these boxes inside alone by a reasonable hour.

_ Why didn’t they send anyone to help me? _ She frowned a little.  _ They do realize that I’m six, right? And also short? How the fuck am I supposed to carry all that? _

Grumbling, she got to unloading. “Ah, man, I’m gonna have to buy plates ‘n stuff too…” She looked at the sea of boxes still left to carry in. “Why did I buy so many plants?” she whined, “are they even all gonna fit?”

“Hey, you’re in my class!”

Railee turned around to see the orange kid from the Academy a little way down the hall. “Oh. Yeah. You’re… Naruto, right?”

“That’s me! I’m gonna be Hokage someday, dattebayo!”

_ That’s an… interesting verbal tic. _

“Anyway, what’re you doing here?” He leaned to look around her at the boxes. “You movin’ in?”

“Um, yeah. Headmistress said since I started the Academy I should get my own place.” She picked at the end of her sleeve. “But, uh, they didn’t send anyone to help unpack, which is kinda weird, since I’m, uh, pretty… small.”

“Well… If you wanted…” Naruto scratched the back of his head. “I could — help?”

Railee smiled. “Yeah, that’d be nice. Just… don’t drop my plants.”

Naruto grinned, grabbing a box.

As it turned out, Naruto was a very talkative person. This suited Railee fine, as she didn’t really like to talk all that much. She just listened as he talked about school, ramen, the kids at the park, ramen, the pranks he pulled, the ramen place, how he was gonna be Hokage, etc., and occasionally interjected a comment. She also learned that she wasn’t the only one with an interest in plants. They resolved to swap gardening info occasionally, in case there was something one knew that the other didn’t.

Soon, the boxes were all inside.

“That should be the last one.” Railee set the box down in her new living room. “Thanks for the help. How long have you been living here?”

“I dunno,” Naruto said, “Couple years?”

_ Who gives a four-year old an apartment?! _


	2. Railee Ver. 2

In retrospect, Railee was three-ish when she started remembering things she shouldn’t know. 

Well, that wasn’t  _ quite _ accurate; before then she’d had wisps and concepts of things beyond her world, but nothing really concrete. Just… a feeling.

She’d stumbled to the orphanage on uncoordinated legs, and the matron and the workers had whisked her up and cooed at her tiny appearance, and asked her name. She shouldn’t have been able to come up with an answer — he hadn’t given her a name yet, before he disappeared — but something in the back of her mind spoke.

_ Riley _ , it whispered.  _ Your name is Riley. _

Of course, they hadn’t spelled it right, since letters and characters weren’t  _ really _ compatible, but it was said the same, so it didn’t really matter. 

After that, things started to trickle in. Names, mostly. She looked at the Hokage monument for the first time, and knew their names.

_ Hashirama, _ she heard,  _ Tobirama, Hiruzen, Minato. _

She looked at the space to the right of the faces, where new ones would be put in the future.

_ Tsunade, _ she heard,  _ Kakashi, Naruto.  _

She heard  _ Chakra _ as she watched Shinobi run over the rooftops, and  _ Shunshin _ as they disappeared.

She heard the whispers in the streets of a boy who is a demon. She heard the whisper in her head of  _ No, he’s not. You’re wrong, wrong, wrong. _

But then it got weird, because she ate a tomato like an apple (because tomatoes are good) and she heard  _ Sasuke likes tomatoes, _ but with an undercurrent of… embarrassment? Self-exasperation?

And when she read books she heard things like  _ What is this, Harry Potter? _ and “ _ Villain monologues before killing the hero” cliche. _

She knew it was weird. She knew, because no one else mentioned experiences like it. But mostly, she knew it the way she knew the whispers were true. She just… felt it.

She knew it was weird. She didn’t really care, though. Information is information, and she liked knowing things. But sometimes she did wonder where it came from.

She was a bright child, even outside of her odd knowledge. She liked to read, and had a mind for patterns. She was creative and she had a good memory. What she was not was socially competent. Being around people wore her out, and she wasn’t good with other people’s emotions.

Similar to every other child her age, Railee wanted to be a ninja. It was a rather popular notion; living in a ninja village tended to play up the glamourous aspects of shinobi life, an nobody really wanted to talk about the  _ other _ aspects around children. Like murder, and near-death experiences.

So kids tended to think that being a ninja was all cool battles with bad guys and no trauma, and therefore they all wanted to be one. Next to none of them, however, would actually end up graduating the Academy. Generally, they’d drop out when they realised being a ninja was harder than they thought. 

Railee was not one of those, though. She was committed to this path, and  _ work _ was hardly about to stand in her way. Especially work that was so  _ fascinating _ . Really, chakra and the shinobi arts had such potential, and hardly anyone ever tried to study it!

Those who did seemed to tend to focus on ninjutsu anyway. Railee, however, was more interested in genjutsu. Oh, ninjutsu was also interesting, but genjutsu was far more unexplored as a subject. She also wanted to look into sealing — from what little she’d heard, it seemed like sealing could do just about anything. 

The only problem with becoming a ninja was her hair. It was, well, orange. Very bright orange. Fluorescent, almost. Not exactly the most conducive for sneaking. She’d have to invest in a hood.

Such eye-catching hair wasn’t great for being a ninja, but she couldn’t bring herself to dislike it. It was pretty, a nice color, (even if it was bright) and more importantly, it was distracting. It drew attention away from her too-pale skin and slanted, golden eyes.

There were lots of reasons she didn’t want to be noticed; Who she was and where she came from, what she knew, and slightly less seriously, her social anxiety. Mostly, though, she just thought there were advantages to going unnoticed. It was easier to eavesdrop if people ignored you (or didn’t know you were there). And eavesdropping was a very good way to collect information.

As stated before, Railee liked knowing things. It made life easier. But sometimes the things she remembered didn’t match reality. For example, for some reason the whisper had seemed to think that shinobi wore open-toed sandals, until she had proven it wrong.

She also remembered the residents of Suna as being pale, even though they lived in a desert. Which  _ didn’t make any sense. _ So she learned to take the knowledge she got from the whisper with a grain of salt, at the very least appearance-wise.

As time went on, the things she remembered got bigger. She’d remember a recipe, or a lesson, or a song that she’d never learned. She’d know how to do something on the first try, or she’d know a word she shouldn’t.

The first time she really got a big enough chunk to have a shot at figuring out why she knew these things, she was walking in the market. 

The orphanage provided meals, but she liked to get snacks sometimes. So, she’d wander the market, looking for something good to eat, or something cool to buy.

She’d been window shopping, mostly, when out of the corner of her eye, she spotted something yellow. She wasn’t sure why, but that particular shade of yellow pinged something in her memory. She turned her head, and saw a boy, about her age, with yellow hair, whisker marks, and blue, blue eyes.

_ Naruto, _ the whisper said. And then,  _ Protagonist. _

And then suddenly, she remembered. Naruto was a story. But not… in this world? Oh shit, she was living in a manga.

After that, memories started coming in bigger chunks.

___________________

Her name used to be Riley Smith. She liked to read, and write, and draw. She wanted to be a psychologist when she grew up. She was a high schooler ( _ 14? 15? 16? She couldn’t remember) _ when she died.

She still had gaps in her memories, ( _ she couldn’t remember how she died. Who doesn’t remember how they  _ died _?! _ ) but she remembered enough. Luckily for her, dying as a teen ment there wasn’t much of a disconnect between her mental age and her physical one. She’d never really had time to stop thinking of herself as a child. The gradual regaining of her memories helped with that as well.

Her brain and body were still very young. That meant that despite everything she knew, she was very much still a small child emotionally. On the other hand, this body seemed hardwired to be smarter than her last one. Oh, Riley hadn’t been a slouch intelligence-wise, but Railee’s mind just seemed… faster. 

Still, even a genius can miss things without the proper knowledge, and now that she knew what to look for, Railee was noticing that something weird was going on. A lot of her weirdness could be chalked up to remembering a past life, but with knowledge of said past life, and therefore some perspective on what is and isn’t normal, some stuff just wasn’t adding up. Some stuff she did right on the first try thanks to knowledge from Riley, but some of it was just astonishingly accurate guesswork. She also won chance-based games an uncanny amount, and had  _ never broken anything, ever. _ That one was especially weird because she dropped shit  _ all the time _ . Cups, bowls, nick knacks, but nothing was ever so much as chipped.

There was something that matched from her memories as Riley, but a good scientist never creates a hypothesis without testing it.

She held out her hand while sitting in the grass at one of the parks.

“I wish I had a leaf.”

Wind swelled, and a leaf fluttered delicately onto her open palm. She dropped it onto the ground and stared at it for a bit. Then she pressed her hands to her face, and faced the sky.

“Oh my god,” she mumbled, “I’m Gladstone Gander. Or Domino.”

Apparently she had a Kekkei Genkai that was just “Being Really Lucky All The Time.”

“Well.” She tried to stay positive. “At least I’m unlikely to die.” Then her scientist brain kicked in. “Wait, how does that work? I thought using Kekkei Genkai required chakra. Did I just use such a negligible amount that I didn’t notice? Also, aren’t bloodlines a combination of two elements? No wait, then the dojutsu wouldn’t- hmm. And also the Kaguya, with the bones…”

Well, she had a new research project now.

* * *

 

Chapter 2

Unfortunately, her experimentation into her newfound power had to be put on hold, as she was starting the Academy the next day. She couldn’t exactly get reliable results in class. At least not without getting in trouble. 

The content of the Academy turned out to be a lot like elementary school, just geared towards ninja. The math was laughably easy ( _ she’d just started on calculus when she died _ ) and her reading comprehension was very high for someone her age. That last one was even mostly her own merits, as reading Japanese and reading English were very different things.

However, she was just as new as everyone else at taijutsu, weapons, and kunoichi classes. She had decent aim, but her kunai kept spinning when she threw them. She had no experience with katas. And she was shit at telling flowers apart.

Kunoichi classes, contrary to the name, were for anyone who thought they might want to specialize in infiltration and seduction. Or, well, whoever the teachers thought might be good at it. Which ended up being mostly girls. The system might not be sexist, exactly, but the culture still sort of was.

Railee thought seduction and infiltration sounded kind of fun, as long as she didn’t actually have to  _ do _ anyone. Like, no thanks. Sex is gross.

Flower arranging was kind of fun, even if the meanings of them were a little hard to keep straight. Riley was an artist, and Railee kept her eye for it. The only problem was matching what  _ looked _ good with the message she wanted to create.

Once, during a free work time, where they were encouraged to make their own message with a bouquet, she created the famous “Passive Agressive Fuck You” arrangement. When the teacher came over, she squinted at the bouquet.

“Railee-chan,” She said, opening the card that came with it, “I don’t think you — ”

The card, of course, read “Fuck you.”

The teacher flushed a bit. “What? Why — Why would you...?”

Railee shrugged. “One of the most important parts of learning a new language is how to insult someone. Also, you said we could do whatever message we wanted.”

“Well, I suppose it  _ was  _ what you intended…?” The teacher rubbed her temples. “Don’t do it again. That’s not the proper sort of language for a young lady.”

Railee saluted. “Not during class. Outside of school I make no promises.”

Once they got past katas and into actual sparring, Railee ended up solidly in the middle of the class. She was very good at dodging. That was something that had carried over from Riley. 

Honestly, she probably would have had a higher ranking if it weren’t for all the clan kids in her class. Extra tutoring at home tended to give them an advantage over the civilian kids and the orphans.

At the top of the class was, of course, Uchiha Sasuke. What was surprising, however, was that Naruto wasn’t the dead-last. They hadn’t been learning katas for long enough for some of the civilian kids to actually be competent, so Naruto’s brawling actually won him some spars.

Railee tried using the Academy style, and she got decently good with it, at least technically, but something just… chafed. The Academy style was, upon reflection, too arm/hand oriented for her. She was better at kicks than punches, and better at dodging than blocking. So, she did what she always did when she had a problem.

She went to the library.

There were certain sections only available to certain ranks of shinobi, and as an Academy student, she’d unlocked one of them. She looked in that section for scrolls on other styles of taijutsu. She found a couple styles that were dodging and kick based, and then went to the Academy’s training yard to practice.

Let it be said, now, that learning a fighting style purely from a scroll is  _ really fucking hard. _ Railee would look at the scroll, try to approximate the stance, and then try to move to the next one. If the flow wasn’t smooth, she’d adjust something here, or there, and try again.

But since no one was teaching her, she couldn’t be sure if she was doing it right.

She stared at a stance she’d been struggling with, swearing under her breath. “... And then turn this here? No, shit, wait… Like that? No that’s not right…  _ Son of a motherfuck _ .”

She settled back into the stance, trying to figure out what she was doing wrong.

“Man, it sure would be GREAT if I could just  _ figure this out — _ !” Her foot slipped, changing her whole stance. “Shit — !”

She paused, looking at herself. “Wait. Hang on, what?” She moved to the next stance from the slip-modified one. It went smoothly. “Holy shit. Thank you, universe.”

The next time they did taijutsu in class, she slipped a little of what she’d figured out into the spars. Her dodging was more fluid, and she had more than one kick to do. Overall, it went much better.

After a while, the teacher started noticing.

“So, Railee-chan. I’ve noticed you’ve been using something other than the Academy style during sparring.”

“Yeah. I found some scrolls at the library.”

The teacher smiled at her. She thought it looked kind of patronizing. “That’s fine, but you know you have to learn the Academy style to graduate, right? You shouldn’t get too caught up in other styles until you’re on a team.”

Railee looked at him, unimpressed. “I know that. I  _ can _ do the Academy style. I just don’t like it.”

The teacher sighed, clearly thinking she was exaggerating, or just being difficult. “Okay, but if your Academy style starts slipping, I’m going to have to talk to your parents.”

Railee snorted. “Hah, good luck with that. You’d have to find them first.”

The teacher leveled his own unimpressed look at her. “What do you mean by that?”

“I live at the orphanage, genius. Figure it out.”

“...Oh.”

And with that awkward end to the conversation, Railee left. She really didn’t like him. She couldn’t wait until he got replaced.

With her shurikenjutsu coming along nicely, she realised that if she really tried, she could probably graduate quite early. She wasn’t going to though. For one, it’d require her to set aside time for training that she usually used for other things, like reading. And for another… 

_ I’m not graduating until I can meet Iruka! _

Iruka was one of her favorite characters. If she graduated now, she’d never get to experience his teaching! Also, her current teacher was an asshole and she didn’t want him to get any reputation from teaching a prodigy. Which is what she would be, if she graduated so early.

_ Being smart is nice. _ Last time around all being smart had gotten her was a fast-tracked education and a serious anxiety disorder. This time, though, she had way less homework, and more interesting school subjects. Taijutsu was way more fun than vocab.

She still kinda sucked at geography, though.

* * *

 

Chapter 3

Once it became apparent that she wasn’t going to drop out of the Academy, the Matron kicked her out of the orphanage.

Well, that sounds worse than it was, because she wasn’t just booted out, they helped her move into an apartment and stuff, but the fact remained that she was now living on her own. At seven-ish. She would be fine, since she was both very smart and technically sort of twenty-something in terms of years lived, but the fact that regular seven-year-olds might also be living on their own irked her.

She knew for a fact (from the manga) that Naruto was living off instant ramen. That just wasn’t healthy.

Still, she was living by herself now, and that brought something about her life to her attention.

_ I don’t have any friends. _

She hadn’t really noticed before, because she didn’t exactly require a lot of socialization. She talked to the orphanage workers, and the other kids, and that was enough for her. But now she went home to a mostly empty apartment, and she realised she was getting lonely.

She wasn’t really sure how to make friends, though. Even in her past life, she got friends through other people, or by being one of three queer people in the class and just sort of… drifting together.

Luckily, though, there was someone in her class that also needed a friend! Or at the very least, someone to tell him that cup ramen is not a sustainable diet.

So, not knowing how people usually make friends, she just decided to be blunt. She walked up to Naruto one lunch period and sat down next to him.

“I have recently realised that I don’t have any friends. Want to hang out?”

Naruto, of course, agreed. But there was the ever present hang up — “Everyone’s parents always say to stay away from me.”

“Well, lucky for you that I both don’t care and don’t have parents.”

Naruto blinked. “Really?!”

“Yeah.” Railee tilted her head. “Well — Hmm. Actually, my father’s alive, I’m just not exactly sure where he is.”

“Ooh! Is he a ninja?” Naruto grinned. “Is he off fighting bad guys?”

“Well he is a ninja, technically.” Railee see-sawed her hand. “But I think he’d actually qualify for ‘Bad Guy,’ rather than fighting them.”

Naruto gasped. “You’re dad’s a bad guy? Crap, M’sorry.”

“Nah, it’s cool. He left when I was three, so I don’t remember him much.” Railee grinned. “But he was sort of cool from an objective standpoint. Like an evil scientist.”

“What’s ‘objective’ mean?”

Ah, she’d forgotten no one really taught him, well, anything. “It’s like…” She waved her hands, looking for the words. “Uh, like how villains in stories can be cool, but in real life you’d never like them? Like that, sort of. Y’know, like, cool as a concept.”

“So your dad’s cool ‘cuz he’s strong, but not-cool ‘cuz he’s evil?”

“Well, I’d say the first one would be more because he’s smart, but strong works too, yeah.”

Their friendship continued much along the same vein, with Railee explaining things badly and Naruto being a general ray of sunshine. On occasion, Railee would show up at Naruto’s apartment with actual food and bully him into eating something other than cup ramen.

“You know, if you only eat ramen, you’ll stay short forever.”

“No I won’t! I’ll grow up to be tall and awesome!” Naruto yelled, “An’ even if I don’t, I’ll still be an awesome Hokage ‘ttebayo!”

“Well, I guess you don’t have to be tall to be Hokage, but if you don’t get enough nutrients you could also, like, die.”

“What?! No!” Naruto pointed at her. “I’ve been eating ramen for years and I’m fine!”

“Yeah, you are abnormally sturdy.” Railee rolled her eyes. “Have you ever even been sick?”

“Once!”

Railee knew that Naruto’s abnormally high constitution was a combination of his Uzumaki blood and the Kyuubi, but she couldn’t exactly say that.

“I bet it’s because you’re an Uzumaki.” Well, not all of it.

“Huh?” Naruto blinked in confusion.

“What, did no one tell you?” She knew that, actually, but she’d been hoping that was one of the places the manga differed from reality. “The Uzumaki clan was the main clan of Uzushiogakure. They specialized in sealing and were absurdly healthy.”

Naruto, for once, picked up on the subtext. “Was?”

“Uzushio was destroyed, and not many Uzumaki are left,” Railee said, “Usually, y’all have red hair, so you’re a bit of an anomaly.”

Naruto was quiet for a bit, taking that in. “...Hey Railee? You know a whole lot, right?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you… Do you know who my parents were?”

Railee did, but she wasn’t supposed to. Time to shade the truth like a pro. “No one’s ever said anything about it around me. I can look, though?”

“Really?!” Naruto lit up, never one to stay quiet for long. “Thanks, ‘ttebayo!”

Railee blinked.  _ Oh my god, he’s made of sunshine. His smile’s so bright…! _ “You’re welcome.” 

She deliberated over what to do. She eventually decided to look, and if the correct conclusion could reasonably be made, she’d deliver the information to Naruto directly.

A week later, she set a book down with a thump in front of him. “Ok, so there’s only been one other Uzumaki in the village in recent history. Her name’s Kushina.” She pointed to the picture in the book. “She was a jonin and also I’m pretty sure she’s your mom.”

“Huh?” Naruto said, a little thrown by the suddenness of Railee’s appearance.

“The description of her personality is practically identical to yours. She’s famous for liking ramen. She was a prankster. And she ended half her sentences with ‘Dattebane’! You’re pretty much a smaller, blonder version of her!”

“Woah.” Naruto practically had stars in his eyes. “She sounds really cool, dattebayo!”

“Apparently she had this ability — I’m not sure if it’s a jutsu or a kekkei genkai or what — but she could make these great big golden chains out of chakra, and apparently,” Railee said excitedly, “they were so strong she could contain a bijuu!”

“Woah,” Naruto said, again, “...What’s a bijuu?”

“Y’know, like the Kyuubi.” Railee wiggled her fingers at him. “A tailed beast.”

“So my mom was really strong.” Naruto grinned. “What about my dad? Did you find anything?”

“Okay, so for your dad.” Railee pursed her lips. “I couldn’t find anything about your dad- But!” She shouted, as she saw Naruto wilt a bit, “The lack of information I found was suspicious! Almost like someone didn’t  _ want  _ me to find anything. So, he was probably someone important, with a lot of enemies that would come after you if they knew!”

“For real? You think my dad was that cool?” Naruto’s smile was brighter than the sun.

 

**[ ~~I rewrote some stuff here and never got around to the transition to the next part before I completely reworked the story, but basically Railee tells Naruto about her luck powers~~ ]**

 

“Uh, sure. Hang on.” Railee went over to the window and opened it. Then she sat back down, cross-legged this time. “I wish I had a cat.”

Since she’d got in the habit of looking for it, she felt the small drain on her chakra. Since it was a simple request, and she’d opened the window so there was a method of delivery, the drain wasn’t much.

Lo and behold, in through the window hopped a stray cat. It looked around, then jumped up onto Railee’s lap.

There were stars in Naruto’s eyes. “That’s awesome! You could do anything!”

“Not really.” Railee stroked the cat’s head. “I don’t have enough chakra yet to make anything  _ really _ weird happen, and I won’t ever be able to do anything impossible. Also, I can’t affect people.”

“Aw. Not at all?”

“No — well. Actually — I mean, I can affect things that affect people? Like I could trip someone, probably, by affecting the ground below them. But I can’t make people do things like I made the cat come in here.” Railee picked up said cat, placing it down on the window sill. As she watched it jump away, she contemplated why that was. What did everything but people have in common?

“Man, it’s like the whole world likes you!” Naruto whined, “I wish the world liked  _ me. _ ”

Railee turned back to face him, smirking lightly. “Well, you’ll just have to settle for me liking you.”

In the silence, their thoughts drifted back to the previous conversation. Naruto tried to work up the nerve to say something, but Railee beat him to it.

 

**[ ~~once again, edits happened halfway and then I rewrote _everything_ and never finished it~~]**


	3. Railee trolls her friends

Now age seven-and-a-half (ish), Railee had something of a schedule in place.

In the morning, she’d get up, get dressed, and have breakfast. After that, she’d water her many, many plants, and get the bentos she’d made the night before. Then she’d head to the Academy.

After school, she’d either read, train from scrolls she’d found, or experiment; generally with her bloodline. Then she’d go home, make and eat dinner, and make bentos for tomorrow. Then, after reading some more, she’d go to bed.

Every so often, about once or twice a week, she’d break into Naruto’s apartment and pester him. Sometimes, she’d make him food, or tell him to do his homework. Occasionally, he’d convince her to get Ichiraku’s ramen with him. No matter how many times she saw it, watching him put away bowl after bowl of the stuff was bewildering.

At lunch, she’d sit with Naruto, and, by extension, the other troublemakers in the class; Kiba, Chouji, and Shikamaru. After finding out that generally, Naruto just didn’t eat lunch, or skipped school to get  _ more  _ ramen, she started making him bentos alongside her own. This, of course, drew comments.

“If Railee makes your bentos, does that mean you’re dating?” Kiba, of course, was the one to say it.

“Bleh, no,” Naruto said, “We’re just friends, ‘ttebayo.”

“Yeah, kissing is gross anyway.” Riley had been both ace and aro, and that had probably carried over to Railee.

“But normal friends don’t make each other bentos,” Shikamaru pointed out, “You gotta admit, that’s a little weird.”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but  _ I’m _ weird.” Railee rolled her eyes. “Besides, if I didn’t, Naruto would only eat ramen, and that’s not healthy.”

“Yeah, you are pretty weird.” Kiba grinned. “Like, I just noticed, but your eyes are yellow! I’ve never seen anyone else with yellow eyes.”

“Yeah, see, I ate too many lemons and they turned yellow.”

“Really?” Said Kiba, Naruto, and Shikamaru simultaneously, with varying levels of disbelief.

“No.” Kiba and Naruto glared at her slightly, annoyed at her deadpan delivery. Shikamaru, par for the course, didn’t react. “I actually stared at the sun for too long, and my eyes absorbed its power.”

Kiba kept glaring. “I feel like you’re lying again.”

“You’re right. The truth is that I was created in a lab by an evil scientist.” Just then, the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. Railee got up first, having already cleaned up.

“You’re still joking, right?” Kiba called after her. “Railee?! Oi!”


	4. Whoops There's a Witness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok so ORIGINALLY in chapter 7 (The C-Rank Curse is Real and also I Want Summons) after Tomoko asks about summons and Kakashi forbids her from trying reverse summoning, she convinces him to at least let her practice handsigns, but then she get distracted while practicing and accidentally completes the summon.
> 
> I removed this for a few reasons, one of which being that I _completely forgot_ that summoning requires blood
> 
> so

“Tomoko!” Kakashi shouted.

Wait. She could hear Kakashi.

The smoke cleared, and she was still exactly where she was before. The reverse summoning hadn’t worked.

She and Kakashi stared between them at the vaguely transparent form of Uchiha Izuna.

“What — ” Izuna looked between the two of them, and down at himself. “ — the fuck.”

_____________________________

So, apparently Tomoko could summon ghosts.

“Oh my god, what the fuck.” She giggled, slightly hysterically. Uchiha Izuna, brother of Uchiha Madara, dead (literally) ringer for Uchiha Sasuke, stood before her in all his slightly see-through glory.

Kakashi was tense, but not on the offensive. Considering Izuna was fucking TRANSPARENT, it was pretty obvious he was a ghost. Or at the very least a projection, or something.

“Who are you?” He asked tightly.

“Uh, Uchiha Izuna,” Izuna replied, “And I’m pretty sure I’m supposed to be  _ dead. _ As in, not here.”

Tomoko ignored Kakashi’s muttered ‘ _ Uchiha  _ **_Izuna_ ** _?! _ ’ in favor of responding. “Yeah, uh, I think I summoned you. On accident.”

“Summoned.” He looked at her. “Like a summon animal or like a demon?”

“Animal.” She bit her lip sheepishly. “It was an accident. I was supposed to be practicing for a reverse summon, but, uh —” She cleared her throat and looked away. “I got distracted.”

“How do you summon a ghost?!” Izuna threw up his hands. “It’s not like there’s a boss dead person like there’s a boss summon!”

“Uh.” She’d only had one dealing with anyone related to the afterlife, and he could  _ definitely _ be called the ‘boss ghost’.  _ Odd side-effects?! This is fucking ridiculous! _ “I might… have a contract with the Shinigami?”

Both Izuna and Kakashi stared at her. 

“What?” They said in unison, Kakashi flatly, and Izuna hysterically.

“I met the Shinigami — his name is Hamura, by the way — and he told me some things, and showed me some stuff —” She leveled a finger at the two of them, but specifically Izuna. “— but he didn’t say anything about this! This is just as much of a surprise to me as you!”

“I have— ” said Kakashi, “ _ So _ many questions. But — you met the Shinigami? When?”

“Uuuh,” Fucking hell, what should she say? What point even was that, chronologically? “The Kyuubi attack, I guess?”

“You  _ guess? _ How did you forget when you met the  _ God of Death _ ?!”

“There were extenuating circumstances!” She waved her arms. “There was a lot going on, and he exists outside of time, and I might have been dead for a bit? It’s a lot, okay?!”

“Okay,  _ how _ did you meet the Shinigami?!”

“Oh, he grabbed me.” She demonstrated a grabbing motion. “Just fuckin, snatched me up. Then he showed me some real bad shit, and we made a deal, and bam!” She gestured to Izuna. “I can summon ghosts, apparently!”

“Bad shit? Deal?” This was too much for Kakashi, apparently, because he covered his face with both hands. After a brief pause to pull himself together, he glared at her, out of his depth. “Why didn’t you tell the Hokage any of this?!”

“You think he would have believed me?” She threw her hands up. “What was I supposed to do, walk up to him and say ‘ _ hey Hokage-sama, I met the Shinigami and he says you’re a moron _ ’? It sounds crazy!  _ I  _ think it sounds crazy!”

There was a slight pause.

“…The Shinigami thinks the Hokage is a moron?” Because of course, that’s what he focused on.

She nodded. “He make several bad decisions in the future, apparently.”

Izuna was squinting, looking between the two of them and around the village. Particularly the Hokage mountain.

“Wait,” he cut into their hysterical back-and-forth about Death Gods, “So the village thing  _ worked out? _ Hashirama wasn’t full of shit?”

Tomoko and Kakashi blinked, having sort of forgot Izuna was still there.

“Uh… no. He wasn’t.” Kakashi said.

“Hashirama was many things but deceitful was not one of them.” She paused, and reconsidered. “Mostly. He  _ was _ a ninja.”

“And here I told Madara not to trust him.” Izuna furrowed his brow. “Wait, how’d Hashirama convince him to go against my final request? Nii-san’s stubborn as shit.”

“Uh, fuckin…” Tomoko waved her arms, trying to remember both what she knew from this life and the last one. “I think the Uchiha were losing? And there was something about the clan getting tired of fighting? And Madara told Hashirama he’d join if he killed either Tobirama or himself. And Hashirama was gonna do it, too, kill himself, I mean, but Madara stopped him when he saw he was serious.”

“That sounds like something Nii-san would do,” Izuna grumbled, “He’s so dramatic. He couldn’t just accept the treaty, noo, he had to see if  _ his only friend  _ is willing to  _ kill himself _ for him.”

“Don’t act like you’re any better, mister ‘ _ take my eyes while I’m on my deathbed _ ’!” Tomoko pointed at him accusingly. “All you Uchiha are melodramatic as fuck!”

Izuna opened his mouth to argue, then seemed to reconsider. “…Shit. You have a point.”

Kakashi had either gotten over it or shoved the whole situation into a mental box labeled ‘ _ deal with later _ ’, because he seemed calm. He gazed between the other two assessingly. “How much chakra did summoning Izuna-san here take?”

“Huh,” she judged her chakra reserves, finding them drained, but not as much as she’d expected. About a fourth was gone. “ ‘bout a fourth, why?”

“Could you do it again? Summon another ghost?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Yeeees?”

He just folded his arms and raised an eyebrow. (Or possibly both eyebrows, but she could only see one.)

She rolled her eyes, but complied. “Anyone specific?” An idea occurred to her. “Actually nevermind, I wanna summon the Nidaime.” 

She started flashing through signs.

“Wait who’s — ?” Izuna was cut off by another explosion of smoke.

When the smoke cleared, Senju Tobirama looked around, looked at his hands, and then spoke. “This is not the Edo Tensei.”

“…  _ Nidaime. _ ” Izuna muttered, “ _ Wait, does that mean —  _ Tobirama was village head!?”

“Hokage,” Tobirama corrected idly.

Izuna ignored the interruption entirely. “What about Madara?! It was Nii-san’s dream!”

“Yes, well, Missing-nin don’t get to be Hokage,” Tobirama said coldly. “Now, would someone like to tell me why I’m here? And more importantly, how?”

“Missing-nin?” Izuna questioned, in the tone of voice that meant ‘unfamiliar term’ and not ‘disbelieving outrage’.

“Traitor, basically,” said Tomoko idly, before turning to Tobirama. “I summoned you, I’ve got a contract with the Shinigami, apparently. My sensei here —” she pointed at Kakashi — “Told me to summon someone other than Izuna. And you’re my favorite Hokage.”

Tobirama blinked, briefly caught off-guard. “…You have a contract with the Shinigami?”

“That’s what I said,” Kakashi sighed, “But her explanation just gave me  _ more _ questions.”

Tomoko grinned at Tobirama. “Wanna help me test the logistics of ghost summoning later? Summons are meant to help in battle, after all, and if I don’t know what we can do I can’t utilize it to its full extent.”

Tobirama returned her smile with a smaller, wicked one. “It would be my pleasure.”

“Awesome.” She felt around her chakra, and found the tugging that was draining it. “Later, though, the chakra drain is starting to get uncomfortable.” She cut it off, and the two ghosts vanished in a puff of smoke.

“Well,” said Kakashi, “That was… interesting.” He pointed towards the village. “I’m just going to —”

“Kakashi,” She called, and he froze. “You can’t tell the Hokage.”

He tensed, looking at her coldly. “And why is that?”

“Because he won’t act when he needs to.” She let all her experience, new life and old and in between, flood into her mind. She let herself be, not a seven-year-old prodigy, but a sixteen-plus-seven year old who had seen things not meant for human eyes. She could tell it worked, because Kakashi shifted, less confrontational, but slightly more wary.

She had seen the end of everything. She had death in her mind and void in her soul. And she was here to save the world.

“Sarutobi Hiruzen is a good man, and a decent general. But he is not fit to lead in times of peace.” Memories flashed through her mind, of lonely little boys and self-righteous old men. “He clings too tightly to how things were, how people were. He does not act when it is needed, and he cannot seem to accurately judge character. He lets children live alone too young.”

She sees a shadow flicker through Kakashi’s eye. Likely he was one of those children.

“He does not act, preferring to avoid conflict. He values peace over his people.” She clenched her jaw. “If things are allowed to go on as they are, he will stall and he will make excuses until he is complicit in genocide. And the only survivors will help spark the end of days.”

He sucked in a breath. “End of days…?”

“The world will unite against a common enemy, the five great nations finally collaborating as one. It will not be enough.” She looked at him sadly. “You are the last to die. Chakra exhaustion.” 

There was a slight wry note in her voice when she said that, but it was gone as she continued. “You fall, joining your students in death, and then there are four. The Juubi, the sum of all bijuu; the mad old man who is her jinchuuriki; his protégé, who had turned against him for you; and the shadow keeping him alive. He begs to join the rest of you in the afterlife, but his master does not let him. He keeps him alive, to show him the fruits of his betrayal.” 

She waves an arm, and with a terrible finality, she says the last word. 

“ _ Nothing. _ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> originally that last bit (with the abrupt tone shift) wasn't there, but then when I reached that point I realized there was no way Kakashi wouldn't tell the Hokage, and I wanted to keep Tomoko's abilities quiet for longer, so I added the confrontation, but then the mood whiplash annoyed me and it just seemed kinda... OOC??? how I can write a character that _is me_ out of character I Do Not Know, but ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> But you know, I liked the dialogue even if it didn't fit. kinda poetic.
> 
> so i put it here!!


End file.
